Last week at the Engage summer party a client with a small 3 person sales team shared his latest sales contest with us.

“The team decided that we needed ipads so we made it into a contest”. At the end of July the rep with the lowest sales numbers had to buy the 3 ipads for everyone on the team.”

I thought this was an interesting twist on a typical sales contest. And a bit “Glengarry Glen Ross” in it’s style. Motivating with the stick rather than the carrot. The typical sales contest rewards the winner financially or with a prize. A trip, cash, a new car, socks. Don’t laugh! A cash strapped client of mine once successfully used tube socks as their weekly contest prize. These contests reward the winner but do not penalize. OK sure.  The loser is penalized with  being  the “loser” and  takes a blow to their ego but they do not suffer punitive financial damages.

I am a big fan of encouraging a competitive spirit in sales. I grew up in the insurance business in an office with a publicly displayed leader board, sales chart, and contests. These selling “aids” helped me succeed because I was always striving to be ahead of someone, or on top of the board.  Competitive spirits succeed in sales. For example new sales recruits who play competitive sports, run, play tennis, hockey etc almost always out perform those who do not. In our office for Lewis is a strong paintball contender and I enjoy the occasional 10k road race!

People always ask me about the value of a sales contest and my answer is “the best contest is that contest which motivates your team to sell more”  The goal is to push the team to perform a little better than they have previously and to prove to them that they can grow. As everyone is motivated differently you can’t create a contest in isolation. For example, a contest with a ski trip as its first prize would not motivate me but it would motivate my friend Derek who is an amazing and passionate skier!

I would love to have your opinions on sales contests and compensation. How are you pushing your sales teams in Q4? What does your 2011 compensation package look like? And, what do you think of the contest stated above? My bias is against punitive damages in a sales contest. Sure as the owner told me the “loser knew what he signed up for” but in the end I think you end up with more disgruntlement on the team than you do motivation. Just my initial thoughts of course…..I might be able to be convinced otherwise.

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleeen

So you’ve gone through the effort… collecting testimonials and putting them onto every web page, right next to your page copy to provide that critical social proof. You’re all done, right?

Not so fast. Ask yourself: how do the testimonials look?

I don’t mean if they are compelling – how explicit are the result?. I don’t mean if they are current – are they recent testimonial that have recently been rotated through? I don’t mean if they are credible – is the source of testimonials viewed by the reader as their peer?

I mean literally, how does your testimonials look?

There was a fascinating study conducted by Mike Reining from MindValley Labs. In it, they tested how the appearance of a testimonial impacts click-through rates. Specifically, they compared a very boring, unstyled text testimonial versus the same testimonial dressed up with a punchy font and graphic treatment.

Something similar to this:

Plain Testimonial:

Your widget increased our sales by 100% in three months.

Styled Testimonial:

Your widget increased our sales by 100% in three months.

The results? The styled testimonial increased conversion rates by over 200%!

By making the testimonial more visually appearing, it increases the odds the reader will notice it. And once the reader notices it, the natural power of the testimonial to increase conversion rates kicks in…

If your testimonials don’t look that appealing – don’t worry. To help you, we’ve provided a couple of canned styles to help give some visual appeal to testimonials on your own web site. You can download them from the Testimonial Director support site (you don’t need to be a Testimonial Director customer to take advantage of these).

Get These Testimonial Styles and Increase Your Conversion Rates!!

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Welcome to the Sales Quiz!

Test your sales knowledge with this Sales Quiz. Just answer the topical sales question below and have me give you her answer!

You should never agree to a sales presentation with a prospect until you know the client’s expectations for that meeting and…?

1. Who all will be attending the meeting and a bit about them
2. Whether the client is committed to buying from you or not
3. What level your own company will let you discount your prices too

Pick your answer and see how you do!

Happy Friday!

While some of you have sent your kids off to school and are winding down summer, I’m still looking forward to my summer vacation in a couple of weeks. When you live North you have to take advantage of every second of sunshine! Can you believe Chris and I found a cottage that has no Wi-Fi? In a pinch we can get free service at the marina 10 minutes away but secretly I am hoping that that “pinch” never happens. After all, everyone needs SOME time to unplug – literally and figuratively.

I’m so excited today because as you read this newsletter we are celebrating the start of our 10th year in business. Yesyerday we kicked off our 10th year with the Engage Summer party at our company party headquarters – our back yard! It’s been such a pleasure to work with sales professionals and business like you and be part of your success. Thanks for being part of our community and allowing us to be a part of your growth. If you missed the party be sure to check into the Engage Selling Facebook Fan Page for all the pictures later this week.

And, while I am feeling thankful… a BIG THANK YOU also to the over 500 of you who have registered for our Social Selling call. We had the first call this week and it was awesome to hear from our real life guest expert on how to use simple social selling tools for big profits! If you missed this week’s call, it’s not too late. You can register for the encore August 25th here: www.engagselling.com/social.

Social Selling has become as crucial to our success as professionals that we decided to add a complete morning Boot camp at the Sales Mastery Event this year. Our goal is to get you going and make you profitable easily, using just a few of the tools available. Don’t worry about being overwhelmed. I won’t let that happen to you ~ NAME~ !! I hope you consider joining us… Make sure you take advantage of our early bird savings at www.EngageSelling.com/mastery.

Dedicated to increasing your sales,
 

One of the most effective ways to maximize sales is to ask clients for referrals directly or indirectly.

A direct referral is when you ask your client for help introducing you to other prospects. An indirect referral is when you receive a call from a prospect who says that “others are talking about you” or that they “saw your information at an event / on your website / or in a publication”

Regardless of whether they are direct or indirect, referrals are the most profitable new leads you can attract to your business. Consider this; new “cold leads” close at a ratio of 75:1 on average whereas referred leads close on average 5:1. What a huge difference! Imagine making 5 calls and getting 1 sales vs. making 75 calls and getting 1 sale, That’s what referred leads can help you do.

Let’s start with direct referrals:

1. Ask your current customers for referrals. The key is to be as specific as possible. For example, don’t just adopt a generic, “do you know anyone who” approach. Instead, make a list of all the companies or people you’d like to meet, approach any existing customers who might have a contact at those new prospects, and then simply ask: “Mr. Customer, I’ve been trying to get hold of the VP of Marketing at ABC Corporation – you don’t happen to know them, do you?” If it’s one of their business partners or associates, or even just a firm that’s in the same industry or building, chances are your customer will know the person you want to meet, and will probably be only too happy to make the introduction.

2. Use success stories as part of your language. When you ask for a referral, you can also use the following approach. “Mr. Customer, our banking clients love the way we……. do you know any banks that might be interested I our X service”

3. Send thank-you notes and gifts. Send a thank-you note for every referral, and a gift for every referral that turns into business. Thank-you notes should be handwritten, on a note card or postcard that isn’t branded with your company advertising. Keep a supply of traditional, fun, theme and plain note cards handy for all occasions throughout the year. For a real treat, spoil yourself with a great fountain pen to make writing the notes something you really look forward to.

For gifts, don’t send the same old thing to everyone. Instead, take a minute to think about what your customer would really like. If they’re dedicated oenophiles, send wine. If they’re into sports, try tickets to a game. For gourmets or candy-o-holics (like myself), food baskets work wonders, and are available in almost any size, style and budget at the click of a mouse – some of my personal favorites are www.harryanddavid.com, www.elenis.com, www.candybouquet.com and www.baskits.com

One last thing – I implore you NEVER to send electronic greeting cards, no matter the occasion. E-cards look like you were too lazy or didn’t care enough to do the real leg work needed to honor your customer – and let’s face it, that’s not too far off the mark, is it?

Go the extra mile, and write a personalized note. That little extra effort is what will get you noticed – and get you more referrals. Yes, some of these ideas require you to know detailed information about your customers. But isn’t that what sales is all about?

Some ideas to attract indirect referrals include:

1. Bringing like minded people together. Create a top-of-the-class networking club. Make a list of those people in your city who you know to be well-connected, great networkers, then invite them all to come together with one catch – they have to bring someone that they think the rest of the group should meet. It’s likely this person will be a great networker, too. Ensure that your clients have a chance to talk to all the prospects in the room, that way they can sign your praises to the prospects and you will receive more inquires for your services!

When great networkers get together in the same room, the energy is unmistakable, and they share leads like there’s no tomorrow. Plus, because everyone in the room will be of the same caliber, there’ll be an even higher propensity to share, because everyone will feel like the giving and receiving is balanced.

2. Another approach that can help you develop a steady stream of referrals is to ask questions. One Engage customer doubled her referrals simply by asking the following client-focused question at the end of every client meeting:

“Our clients love the fact that we can connect them with other clients and partners, now… how can I help you?”

By putting the needs of her customers first, she demonstrates that she truly cares about them. When people sense that you care, they tend to want to return the favor. In fact, you may find that many of your customers are genuinely surprised by a question like this, because no one has ever asked them that before. And that’s why your follow-up question is equally indispensable:

“You’ve helped my business grow by becoming part of our family network. I’d like to help your business grow, too. So let me ask you – what type of people do you want to meet to help increase your revenue?”

At its most basic level, selling is relationship building. And to build a successful relationship, you have to know a few things about the other person who’s in the relationship with you. Think about it this way: if you don’t know this information about your customers, who does?

There are countless ways you can let your customers know you care and are thinking about them. Each has its pros and cons. Some work consistently but cost too much. Others are cheap and easy to implement, but don’t produce as many leads as you might want.

Try them all, and try them often, and I guarantee, you’ll start to see results – and more referrals – in no time.

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen

When we rolled out Testimonial Director many clients wrote to us asking for ideas on how to use testimonials and where to place rave reviews on their marketing.  I created the following list to help.

Here are 53 ideas every business can implement to help your customers sell for you!

1. In the biographies of all your team members. “Clients say the following about Colleen…..”
2. In the biographies of your management team
3. In the biographies of your board of directors
4. On the “about us” write up on your website
5. In a customer forum, or discussions group
6. In a “client only” section of the website or a membership only site
7. In your client profile page. Start and or end with a testimonial
8. In your signature line on emails. Use plain text and add it under your signature – like a P.S.
9. On each internal page of your website down the left hand or right hand margin
10. In sales presentations on PPT slides when talking abut each solution you offer a client
11. On the footers of any autoresponder emails
12. In all e-marketing blasts sent by marketing
13. In hard copy marketing materials
14. Create a “what customers are saying about us” booklet for download or deliver as hard copy
15. In user guides and help manuals
16. On invoices that are printed or emailed to clients
17. On your face book page
18. On your linked in page
19. In your Outlook V-file (contact information)
20. On rotating welcome slides before a webinar
21. At the beginning or end of a recorded presentation
22. On invitations to tele-classes or webinars
23. On the demo download page
24. On web thank you pages
25. In thank you emails when a client has downloaded a demo, requested information or started a free trial
26. In on line videos or on demand web based training for your product
27. On web order receipts
28. On up sell and cross sell pages
29. On contact us pages
30. On the product packaging
31. Printed on the back of your business card
32. In QA section on the website
33. For product support – use real life customer solutions
34. In client survey’s polls
35. When asking for referrals
36. In presentation descriptions on applications to speak at trade shows
37. In on-line banner ads
38. In advertisements in trade publications
39. In the “by-line” for white papers, articles and case studies you write for publications
40. In your internal company newsletters – as “good news stories”
41. On internal intranet sales sites
42. In your CRM for internal reminders and motivation
43. On your leader boards
44. In waiting rooms and meeting rooms in your corporate offices
45. On proposal templates for all sales proposals
46. On your telephone “on hold” system
47. Radio ads
48. TV ads
49. Newspaper and magazine ads
50. On your voice mail system
51. As the basis for cold calling scripts
52. To answer sales objections
53. On your cell phone voice mail message.

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen

Warning – this idea is not for everyone. But the few brave sales pros (including me) who have tried it – swear by it! It’s just for the extra tough follow ups you have on your list. Those who will not return calls.

The following is a true story. Results  are actual. Names have not been changed in order to honour our client’s success!

Amanda tried something new this year. She wrote me immediately to share the story and I thought you should hear it too.

“Oh Colleen. Your tactics always work so well. This is a HUGE reseller (VAR) in NY that has been avoiding me like crazy.”

Here is what happened between Amanda and Frank:

Original email:

Dear Frank;

On April 12, I sent you an email asking for you to review our phones product line and as I haven’t heard from you, I can only assume one of the following:

1) You’re now not interested and I’m reduced to the status of an annoying piece of spam clogging up your email; or

2) You desperately want to contact me, but you’re trapped under a fallen filing cabinet and can’t reach your phone or PC.

Your guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Regards, Amanda ,Channel Sales Manager

P.S. If it is #2, please let me know and I’ll send someone round to help you out.

Actual Response within 2 hours:

Amanda, That’s hysterical. Now I’m going to call you tomorrow.

Regards, Frank

Result:

Frank called Amanda, and the business moving forward. Lesson, if you continue to do the same thing over and over again you will get the same result. If you want a different result, do something different. Shake it up! Have some fun! What have you got to lose?

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen

Take the Sales Quiz!

Test your sales knowledge with this Sales Quiz. Just answer the topical sales question below and have Colleen give you her answer!

Here is a question along the lines of last week’s postings

Your prospects are spending how much of their on-line time on social media sites?

1. 5%
2. 10%
3. 25%
4. 50%

Pick your answer and see how you do!

When Chris and I want to get away with Conrad for an extended summer long weekend, we favour Lake Placid. It’s still a bit rustic and has some great hikes (and for some of us – great swims).

In Lake Placid we always stay at Go-Cottage and eat at the Brown Dog Cafe. Both are amazing locally owned business with owners who are passionate for the services they provide. No kidding that are both successful and growing! And that got me thinking…

I have to admit that some of my best ideas surface while I am away from the office. Thinking about those businesses, we noted that even these local retailers are changing how they sell in order to win and keep customers. For example, that local cottage where we stay now relies heavily on social media (Facebook, YouTube, etc…) to thrive. While we were hiking (and successfully wearing out Conrad), Chris and I realized we couldn’t wait to share our latest on-line strategies for selling with the entire Engage community.

So, we’ve decided to host a new exciting teleclass on how to capitalize on this era of social selling. Whether harnessing the power of social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc…) or interacting in new ways directly on your web site (blogs, YouTube, Live Chat), you need to keep up with how your prospects are researching and making buying decisions today. This teleclass will reveal the strategies you need to be applying for social selling as well as show you how to get going immediately in your own business.

And be forewarned! The call will be social, complete with a real life guest expert practitioner who has successfully applied these principles. You’re encouraged to ask questions and discuss the issues facing you applying these principles to your own business.

I know you will love it because every day we field calls from our members about how to engage their customers on-line and use social media successfully. So please make sure you sign up now for this complimentary teleclass and enter this new era of Social Selling

Remember – you just need to sign up for one of these calls! We are repeating it as I know that this topic will be popular and the calls will quickly fill up to capacity (both will be live!). Please note that we won’t be recording the call to encourage you to be social: ask questions and interact!

I can’t wait to share this information with you (and neither can our secret guest)!

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen Francis

You may have noticed that I have been thinking a lot about the concept of Social Selling. One reason is becuase of a new Neilsen report that shows our clients are spending a full 25% of their online time on Social Media sites.

“Now, we trust strangers.” That’s how New York-based Universal McCann sums up their 2008 study on the impact of online social media on society. They note that there has been a real explosion the number of ways in which people can share information and influence decisions. The marketplace used to be run almost exclusively on face-to-face meetings and transactions. Today, that has been transformed into a space occupied by networks of people where social capital is earned and valued.

This has important ramifications for sales, because the real power behind social media is how it can help transform you from being a complete stranger into a known quantityeven among groups of people you’ve not even met yet. As marketing and social media strategist Kneale Mann sums up rather nicely, the benefit is that “social media can eliminate the cold part of the call.”

To be clear, I’m not saying that salespeople and business owners should get out there and post ads all over the place on their favourite social media websites and ask for referrals outright. In fact, that’s a strategy that’s doomed to fail, because it breaks the golden rule of reciprocation: to ask something from others, you ought to provide them with something of value first.

Be a resource. Provide something that’s truly useful to readers. That’s the key leveraging social media. The referrals come later, only after you’ve demonstrated that value over a period of time, and after you’ve have earned it through your work providing products or services to your client.

Let’s look quickly at a few of the leading text-based social media tools out there today…

Twitter: Twitter has the unique advantage that it caps individual posts (or “tweets”) at 140 characters, so the onus is on you to be succinct. However, it also tends to encourage prolific tweeting, so you remain top-of-mind among fellow twitterati who follow you. Don’t just clutter your tweets with details of what you’re up to daily. Use this service as a modern method of broadcasting something of value. Have a link to a great product review…a great article featured in a marketing magazine…or a hot tip about a trend in your profession? Share it here. If followers find it useful, they can choose to re-tweet it. Voila! Your message just picked up extra traction.

LinkedIn: Widely considered as social media’s go-to place for business, LinkedIn helps you connect all your professional relationships and trusted personal contacts. This service is a great way to reinforce your network of clients and suppliers and discover previously untapped connections between people you know. It’s also a great place for testimonials—to receive them and to write them about others who have provided you with great service.

One of the best ways to communicate your expertise and gain followers on LinkedIn is by asking and answering questions. To do this effectively you can:

• Join groups that are relevant to your business and participate actively in the forums;
• Start your own group, focused on creating a community of focus on your product, service or topic / expertise area;
• Search for questions based on keywords and supplant yourself in the middle of an ongoing conversation; and
• Ask questions that will help you start a dialogue or gather research in an area that can better serve your customers and prospects.

Regardless of how you use questions make sure that you are delivering value in your answers. Do NOT shamelessly pitch your products or invite people to “check you out” on the web. Use the questions function in LinkedIn as a tool to showcase your expertise and knowledge in a specific subject matter and users will seek you out as a resource.

Facebook: While many treat Facebook as a more personal-focused networking tool, there’s no denying that it’s a great place to get noticed just by maintaining a presence. Remember: this is one of the most visited places on the web every day. Nielsen research in January 2010 ranked Facebook third among the top-ten web brands in America today. Therefore, if you have a time-sensitive message that needs to get out, this is a good place to do that. Top-ranked real estate agents are masterful users of Facebook, using the status updated to post news about their latest hot listings, encouraging readers to share that news with friends and family.

Make sure to create a fan page for your business and invite clients to join. The best companies ensure they deliver knowledge updates in the daily fan-page status field. They also share links and resources to fans on a daily basis. The aim is to create an active community that will dialogue with you and between themselves. You will attract referrals and testimonials if you provide high value advice everyday and reward the community for participation.

Consumer forums: For salespeople, online consumer forums can be a great place to share your product knowledge and offer advice…in other words, to be a valuable resource. Don’t EVER use these forums to pitch. Readers will frown on that and your social capital will be hurt. Instead, create a thread in which you introduce yourself as a sales professional who is knowledgeable about the products or services you sell and that you’d like to invite readers to post any questions they might have. This is a great way to start a dialogue with people and it gives you an opportunity to really demonstrate that depth of knowledge that you keep talking about.

There are many other social media sites, of course, and that list is endless. The list I’ve shared today is focused on text-based sites, but visual-based social media (e.g., YouTube and Flickr) is another important, rapidly growing segment. Take some time and do your research. Find out where your prospects gather online and find a reason to join in on the conversation. If you do this in a way that’s pitch-free and value focused, people will appreciate your efforts and that goes a long way to helping to build an online presence that is seen as memorable and as a valued resource for readers and potential customers alike.

Watch this spot tomorrow for an important invitation to a free event we are hostingto help you sell more socially!

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen